Verbatim Nano Notebook Mouse Reviewed

There is no doubt that this year, millions of mobile computers will be sold. However, there is one major problem with notebooks, netbooks etc. That problem’s name is the touchpad. Regardless of acquiring a notebook with a multi-touch pad such as Apple’s Mac Book or ASUS’s EEE series, at the end of the day you will feel more comfortable controlling the computer via a mouse.

Thus, we decided to take a look at the Verbatim Nano Wireless Notebook Mouse and its features and quality as well as worthiness to the back to school laptop crowd.

PackagingThe packaging for this mouse is fairly minimal and informative but still serves a slightly aesthetic purpose. As you can see, this packaging is made up of a cardboard outer shell that has a plastic inner shell that houses the mouse, receiver, documentation, batteries and software CD.

Cardboard packaging carries a discrete, yet clear design – this version is sold on the North American continent

From the looks of it, Verbatim went off with a discrete design, something we appreciate in a sea of shiny packages that promise "best control", "smooth grip", "excellent precision" and similar statements that remind me more of advertising a car than a wireless mouse.

Verbatim claims that the contents are recyclable, marked by several logos [American and European standards]

The box passed our drop-and-kick test with flying colors, since the enclosed plastic shell is well-designed and is able to eat up bumps caused during transportation. Truth to be told, the mouse isn’t a touchy-feely electronic such as motherboards – this is a device that will spend the rest of its working life under your sweaty or moist hand – that’s just the way how we humans are, thus it is an imperative that the Go Nano mouse itself doesn’t leave that plasticky-feel that causes the sweat on our hands.

As far as the packaging goes, we liked the fact that Verbatim stayed within its Japanese tune using very precise design with no overload of useless information.AccessoriesWhen it comes to accessory side of things, we feel that Verbatim could have pulled an extra punch and actually bundled a USB stick with the accompanying software. Even though you really don’t need any drivers to have this mouse working in any operating system, the fact of the matter is that majority of netbooks on the market don’t feature an optical drive.

Thus, we’ve seen even Microsoft posting a guide on how to install Windows 7 using an USB drive… in that perspective, Verbatim missed on scoring a great opportunity, especially given the price of 1GB sticks [last offer we got in that unsolicited spam mail was in the range of $2.50 per 1000pcs].

The good part of this mouse is the fact that it comes with a mini receiver, and it won’t take a lot of space on your mobile computer. If you have the appropriate shade of black [editor’s Tosh’ Qosimio fits the bill], you might forget its even there.

The quick start guide itself is very informative and tells the customer what is included, what the features of the device are, and how to get started. The quick start guide explains everything very well in concise and understandable English. In addition, it has directions in multiple languages as not to leave out other regions of the world.

That?s all that comes with this nano mouse. I guess it is pretty fitting to have very little come with a mouse that?s coined as nano. Overall there isn’t really much you should need for this mouse, especially if it works right out of the box, which we’ll be testing for later.SupportVerbatim lists that they have support numbers for the US and Canada as well as Mexico and Argentina. They also have websites that you can visit for support in the same countries listed above as well as Brazil. The warranty that comes with this mouse is a standard one-year warranty that covers defects in materials and or workmanship. In the Europe, though, Verbatim is bound by EU laws; people in countries that are members of the EU will receive a 2-year warranty as opposed to the standard global 1-year warranty.

Reviewer’s ExperiencePersonally, I have dealt with many a wireless mice and many a "nano" mice. The biggest problem for me when dealing with wireless mice is the lag that they have and the lack of comfort that most wireless mice have. In many cases they?re either too big and heavy or too small and light. In the past, I had a wireless laser mouse from Microsoft, which I thoroughly enjoyed until it started giving me problems. The receiver was bulky; the mouse itself was heavy and chewed through batteries and was very glitchy at times. Not to mention the fact that the software that came with the mouse didn?t really work very well and the mouse drivers were troublesome.

As for the nano mouse, it just works. Plain and simple. We tested this mouse by checking the functionality in six different systems with multiple operating systems – from netbooks to powerful desktops, and it worked flawlessly in all of them.

Since this is being sold as a wireless notebook mouse I had to test it on all three of the laptops in the lab. Needless to say, Verbatim’s Go Nano worked from the second I plugged it in.

In all honesty, the mouse doesn’t really need the software at all. The nice thing about this mouse is that the receiver plugs into a small area in the mouse itself and that is how you turn the device on or off. The mouse also goes into sleep mode if you don?t use it for extended periods of time, which means you don?t have to keep taking the receiver in and out in order to save battery power. Because of this, the device basically takes up almost no more space than the mouse itself. And in addition to that it?s very easy to carry and it means that you won?t really lose the receiver even considering how small it is.

The weight of this mouse is also a very important factor for someone who would be using a laptop and from my experience
there is no way to say that this mouse is even close to being heavy. To be frank, I doubt you would even notice it was in your laptop bag if you had it.

Above, you can see where the two AAA batteries go as well as where the receiver plugs in and how the arrows have to match up in order for it to fit correctly.

As for comfort, this thing is very comfortable. It has a very smooth rubberized grip on the sides that gives a soft smooth feel but still gives you that nice grip you want in a mouse. Going from my G5 gaming mouse, it?s very hard to compete with comfort especially considering that I?m very picky when it comes to the comfort of the mouse. This mouse is very comfortable to use and has two very large sliders on the bottom to help it glide along a mouse pad or any smooth surface. Also, this mouse does have an ergonomic shape to it, so you can definitely see why it is fairly comfortable in comparison with other small mice out there.

Honestly, I would rather use this smaller mouse than some of those larger generic mice out there that have no ergonomic shape to them at all.

The SoftwareThe software included with this mouse is minimal, and to be honest, useless.

All it allows you to change is the scroll speed of the wheel and that?s about it. There is also a mouse speed testing program included, but it really doesn?t matter at all in the scheme of things. The one thing I felt was really missing was the ability to adjust Dpi.

Mouse precision part of the calibrating utility

All in all, the bundled configuration utility wasn’t bloated or promising online updates etc… in all reality, if you feel like it, you can install the application and check it out – but in all seriousness, it isn’t mandatory.PerformanceThis is a wireless mouse, and as such there aren’t really many performance figures you can look at other than "does it lag?" and "what kind of signal does it have?"

Looking at these figures it does fairly well. I managed to play some FPS games with the mouse and didn’t experience any noticeable lag. In addition to that I also tested the range of the mouse and got approximately seven meters [24 feet] before the signal began to fade and was no longer smooth. As an additional note, this mouse works with both Macs and PCs per the specifications, but I have not had theopportunity to do any Mac testing. The system requirements are as follows, you must have at least Windows XP, 2000, Vista, Mac OS 10.4.X and higher. And you must also have one free USB port on your computer.ValueThis mouse retails at Newegg for 27.99, which in the grand scheme of things isn?t really expensive nor is it cheap. I would say that for what it offers, ease of use, comfort, and reliability that it is worth the price to pay even though there is a lack of real additional value beyond just the mouse as most of the accessories are just the manual and some practically useless software. On another note, this thing comes in basically every color under the rainbow: Red, Yellow, Green, Pink, Blue, Purple, and Grey.

Image Courtesy of Newegg.

ConclusionIn all, this is a good notebook mouse that has notebook users in mind and to me seems like a great buy for anyone looking for a compact travel mouse to accompany that new notebook they just got for back to school. Verbatim has a well thought out product on their hands and perhaps with slightly better software it would be unbeatable in this segment of the mouse market. Our recommendation is that this mouse is worth buying if you need something that travels well and works in almost any computer right from the get go.